State attorney appeals ‘lenient’ sentence for man who killed immigrant teen

The State Attorney’s Office files an appeal to the Supreme Court against what it says is an overly lenient sentence for Liad Edri over the killing of Yoel Lhanghal, 18, during a fight in Kiryat Shmona in 2022, and calls for the maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison to be imposed instead.

Edri, who was 21 at the time of the incident, was sentenced in September by the Nazareth District Court to five and a half years in jail for the death of Lhanghal on charges of aggravated assault with intent, as well as obstruction of justice, after signing a plea bargain in which a murder charge was dropped.

Edri was also ordered to pay compensation of NIS 50,000 (approximately $13,200) to Lhanghal’s family.

The State Attorney’s Office describes the incident in which Lhanghal was killed as “very violent and cruel,” and which was deliberately initiated by Edri at the head of a gang of youths armed with various offensive weapons in order to harm Lhanghal, who was stabbed by an unknown member of the gang and was then kicked by Edri in the area of the stab wound. He died of his wounds.

The punishment “is not commensurate with the clear and unambiguous message that has come out of the Supreme Court of the need for strict punishments that [serve as] a deterrent from the violence prevalent on Israeli streets and the despicable phenomenon of quarreling, taking the law into ones own hands, and the use of severe violence in trivial disputes,” which the State Attorney’s Office noted has led to the loss of life on several occasions in recent years.

“This punishment creates a misleading message of leniency to the public, which does nothing to deter Edri and others from resolving conflicts through taking the law into their own hands through the use of severe violence,” the State Attorney’s Office writes in filing its appeal.

Lhanghal’s family strongly criticized the original sentence, saying the truth regarding his murder had emerged from the trial and that they had lost faith in the justice system.